There are numerous threads on the Haskell Café involving rewriting,
refactoring, refining, and in general improving code (for some definition of
improve). I am interested in seeing examples of how Haskell code can be
rewritten to make it better. Some general examples are:
- Eta-reduce
- Make more pointfree
- Introduce monadic operators or do-notation
- e.g. for Maybe, lists, State
- Eliminate monadic operators or do-notation
- Generalize types
- e.g. change map to fmap, (++) to mappend
- Use instances of Functor, Applicative, Alternative, Category, Arrow,
Monoid, Traversable, etc.
- Use library functions from Data.List, Data.Map, Data.Set, etc.
- Use some form of generic programming (e.g. SYB, Uniplate, EMGM, Alloy)
- Use other libraries not included in the Platform
My question is simple:
*How do you rewrite your code to improve it?*
You can answer this in any way you like, but I think the most useful answer
is to show a reasonably small, concrete example of what your code looked
like before and after. Also, please describe how you think the rewrite
improves such code.
- Is it better style? More useful? More efficient?
- Are the types (before and after) the same?
- Are the semantics the same?
- How did you prove or test equivalence? (e.g. Can you use equational
reasoning to confirm the rewrite is valid? Did you use QuickCheck?)
Here is an example that I find myself doing occasionally.
For all x, f:
x >>= return . f
-->
fmap f x
or
f <$> x -- requires importing Control.Applicative
I think the right-hand side (RHS) is more concise and simpler. The types
here do change: the type constructor has a Monad constraint in the left-hand
side and a Functor constraint in the RHS. Types that are Monad instances are
generally also Functor instances, so this is often possible. I'm convinced
the semantics are preserved, though I haven't proven it.
What's an example of a rewrite that you've encountered?
Thanks,
Sean
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.haskell.org/pipermail/haskell-cafe/attachments/20100302/74e497aa/attachment.html